‘We’ve got it from here’: Clayton community mourns passing of Charlie Solar

Mr. Solar, 98, a member of the fire department since 1941, died Friday evening at his home. The local legend was a World War II Army veteran, former village DPW superintendent, town constable, village trustee, honorary dock master, crossing guard and was named Clayton’s first Citizen of the year in 1970 by the Chamber of Commerce.

Chief Barton said his last words to Mr. Solar were: “‘Do what you gotta do. Rest at ease. We’ve got it from here.’”

“He just gave that smile, and nodded his head,” Chief Barton said. “It felt good. We pretty much told him we loved him and we’d see him on the other side some day. He smiled. He was happy.”

Chief Barton added, “It was nice to say what we needed to say to each other. He was just an amazing man.”

Mr. Solar loved the river village and as DPW superintendent and DPW employee from 1965 to 1984, knew its inner workings from top to bottom — the sewers to the light fixtures.

But it was the love of the community and his daily interactions with people who call Clayton their home that endeared Mr. Solar to local residents.

“He was a very respectful person,” Chief Barton said. “Everybody knew who he was. He basically was the stone, the pillar, of the community.”

According to his obituary from Cummings Funeral Service, Mr. Solar was born in Clayton in 1922, son of John E. and Ida May (Orvis) Solar, Sr. He graduated from Clayton High School in 1941. In 1942 he entered the Army, serving with the 825th Engineer Aviation Battalion. He was honorably discharged on Dec. 31, 1945 as a corporal.

With others, Mr. Solar came from a generation that shared valuable life lessons, Chief Barton said.

“My grandfather was also that generation,” Chief Barton, who turns 48 this month, said. “They instilled into us that you work for what you’ve got to do. You’re not handed it. If you want respect, you earn it. That’s something what Charlie always told me on the side: ‘If you ever want to go someplace, work your butt off and earn your respect. It’s not given to you.’”

Before his service to his country, Mr. Solar was a truck driver for Cowers Motor Express. After returning from war, he was a pick up and delivery driver for New York Central Railway Express and then in 1960, before being hired by the village, he worked for Lou Leonard Plumbing and Heating.

At the fire department, Mr. Solar served over the years as chief, president and vice president.

Chief Barton joined the fire department in 1992.

“He was a mentor to me,” the chief said. “He pretty much led us to where we are now. He’s a guy with 79 years of service when he passed away. That’s just unheard of.”

Clayton Volunteer Fire Department treasurer Justin A. Taylor has been in the department since 1975 and is a former chief.

“Charlie, first and foremost, was dedicated to the fire department and the community,” Mr. Taylor said. “He lived on Franklin Street most of his life, which was just around the corner from the fire station. He was very often the first on the scene at a fire call or the fire station.”

Mr. Taylor and Chief Barton said that Mr. Solar could be a taskmaster, but the gaining of respect was its own reward.

“He was the type of guy who you wouldn’t always agree with and he always wouldn’t agree with you,” Mr. Taylor said. “But he was always open to having an open conversation about whatever the topic was.”

“Charlie was just someone who was always there for you,” Chief Barton said. “If you had an issue, you went to him. He’d basically talk to you and tell it as it is — straightforward. That’s just Charlie.”

Mr. Taylor said that Mr. Solar had a conservative nature when it came to changes in the community, but those impulses were swayed by that willingness to listen to others. As an example, Mr. Taylor recalled the arrival of “tone alerts” in the late 1970s. With the paging system, firefighters carry portable electronic devices that give alerts about emergencies in their communities.

“The tone alert pagers were just starting to be one of the new things and he just couldn’t understand them,” Mr. Taylor said. “I remember my wife and I going over to his house one Sunday night. My wife sat with Gert (Charlie’s wife) in the living room and Charlie and I sat at the kitchen table and we did a bit of stick drawing.”

With the illustrations, Mr. Taylor mapped out Watertown, Clayton, and how information on the pagers was transmitted.

“He didn’t agree with it at first — new technology,” Mr. Taylor said. “But once it was explained to him, he accepted it. It was kind of the same from going to 2½-inch hose to 3-inch hose and how much more water you could pump through it.”

Clayton is seeing obvious changes these days with an infrastructure project. Last year, Luck Bros. Inc., Plattsburgh, hired by the state Department of Transportation, began the historic district road reconstruction and village betterments project, which encompasses much of Riverside Drive, a section of James Street between Riverside Drive and Mary Street, and the section of Webb Street between Riverside Drive and Hugunin Street.

“I think he was very supportive of that,” Mr. Taylor said. “He recognized the need to upgrade the infrastructure, the sewer and water lines and the type of infrastructure he was intimately involved in.”

Mr. and Mrs. Solar celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2007. Mrs. Solar died in 2019.

“They were inseparable,” Mr. Barton said. “When you looked at them two, that was definitely what a marriage was about. They never went anyplace without each other. When Gert passed away, you kind of felt a piece of Charlie leave a little bit. But he hung in there, and at 98 years old, still lived at home by himself. He’s a big inspiration to all of us.”

Calling hours for Mr. Solar will be from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Clayton Fire Department, 855 Graves St. The funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday with Pastor Earl LaLone, Clayton United Methodist Church, officiating.

Preliminary plans call for Mr. Solar’s body to arrive for the funeral in a pickup truck, followed by fire trucks.

Mr. Solar will be the second esteemed village citizen it has laid to rest since July. On July 20, youth advocate Leonard P. “Obie” O’Brien died. In March of 1985, Mr. Solar wrote a letter to the editors of the Watertown Daily Times encouraging voters to back Mr. O’Brien for village trustee.

“You have a personal stake in what direction your village will take in the next five years with the expected influx of population to Jefferson County,” Mr. Solar wrote.

In 2011, a Times reporter asked Mr. Solar why he joined the fire department in 1941 at the age of 18.

“I joined because, of course, you always want to do something for the community,” he said.

It was a mission accomplished.

“He definitely had nothing to prove to anybody,” Chief Barton said. “He lived his life to the fullest.”

Mr. Solar’s obituary appears below.